Kane Williamson and Mayank Agarwal will be looking for new teams in the 2023 IPL auction this December as the 10 franchises announced their retention list on 15 November and the two former captains were released by Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings.
Dwayne Bravo too his been returned back to the auction pool by Chennai Super Kings who, interestingly, have managed to retain the services of Ravindra Jadeja.
Another big name released by his franchise was Kieron Pollard, but it seems the decision was made by Mumbai and the all-rounder together as his announcement to retire from the tournament was made alongside the franchise appointing him their new batting coach.
In a small setback for the league, T20 World Cup-winner Alex Hales, alongside Aussie Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins have pulled out of the upcoming season of the tournament, to focus on international commitments.
Kane Williamson, who led New Zealand to the semifinals of the T20 World Cup in Australia just last week was not retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Williamson, who captained the Sunrisers in the 2022 edition, had recently recovered from an injury and has been struggling for form in recent times. "Always our Kane Mama!," the franchisee wrote in a post on its social media while announcing their decision to release him.
Williamson has played 76 matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring 2101 runs at an average of 36.22 and a strike rate of 126.03.
Chennai Super Kings released Dwayne Bravo but have retained India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja despite an acrimonious relationship with the left-arm spinner over the captaincy issue, along with M.S. Dhoni.
Bravo has been with CSK since 2011 and has won the Purple Cap twice (2013 and 2015). He was bought by CSK for Rs 4.40 crore in the 2022 IPL Auction.
Apart from Bravo, CSK also released New Zealand's Adam Milne, Englishman Chris Jordan and Indians N Jagadeesan, C Hari Nishaanth, K Bhagat Varma, KM Asif, and Robin Uthappa, who had retired from all forms of cricket in September.
Ravindra Jadeja, as per reports, had shown an inclination towards leaving the franchise following a turbulent 2022 season where he started as the captain but stepped down in the middle of a disastrous campaign. He was reportedly unhappy with the way he was treated by the CSK management but his latest tweet seems to suggest it's a fresh 'start' between the parties.
'Everything is fine,' he tweeted, with the hashtag 'restart'.
Delhi Capitals retained a total of 19 players which includes six overseas cricketers while they released Mandeep Singh, KS Bharat & Ashwin Hebbar and New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter Tim Seifert.
The Delhi Capitals also traded all-rounder Shardul Thakur to Kolkata Knight Riders and brought all-rounder Aman Khan in place of him.
Punjab Kings once again will go into a new IPL season with a new captain with Shikhar Dhawan being handed the reigns, even as the side released their 2022 skipper Mayank Agarwal on Tuesday.
Mayank was handed the franchise's captaincy just last season as they finished sixth in the 10-team season and his exit follows the franchise's parting with long-time coach Anil Kumble.
On the other hand, Lucknow Super Giants released the Caribbean duo of Evin Lewis and Jason Holder, Sri Lanka's Dushmantha Chameera and IPL's first Indian centurion Manish Pandey.
Champions in their inaugural season, Hardik Pandya's Gujarat Titans will have very little to do at the IPL auction as they've released only six players - Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Lockie Ferguson, Dominic Drakes, Gurkeerat Singh, Jason Roy and Varun Aaron.
Roy seems the biggest name to be sent back to the auction pool but the English cricketer has seen a dip in form of late, and missed the bus for the 2022 T20 World Cup as well. He was bought for Rs 2 crore by Gujarat in the 2022 IPL auction but pulled out before the start of the tournament.
Retained Players: Abhinav Sadarangani, Alzarri Joseph*, B. Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, David Miller*, Hardik Pandya, Jayant Yadav, Matthew Wade*, Mohammad Shami, Noor Ahmad*, Pradeep Sangwan, R. Sai Kishore, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan*, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Wriddhiman Saha, Yash Dayal
After revealing the list of retained and released players, the Sunrisers had the largest purse (Rs 42.25 crore) for the auction on 23 December, followed by Punjab (Rs 32.20 crore), Lucknow (Rs 23.35 crore), Mumbai (Rs 20.55 crore), Chennai (Rs 20.45 crore), Delhi (Rs 19.45 crore), Gujarat (Rs 19.25 crore), Rajasthan Royals (Rs 13.2 crore), RCB (Rs 8.75 crore) and KKR (Rs 7.05 crore).
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